Rene Char (1907 – 1988)

The cries of a dying dogare to be blotted outas best I can.René Charyou are a poet who believesin the power of beautyto right all wrongs.I believe it also.With invention and couragewe shall surpassthe pitiful dumb beasts,let all men believe it,as you have taught me alsoto believe it.

Char embodies the ideal of the poet fighting for the nobility of the world — the leader of a small resistance group dedicated to honoring the ten thousand things of the universe. Mountains and rivers, flowers and vipers, meteors and rain — everything teems with meaning for this poet. … Illumination was his theme, his method — "For me lightning lasts," Char declared. His work is an essay in revelation.